A wireless device can enter into a lower power state, such as an idle mode or a sleep mode, in which the wireless device is not in continuous communication with an access node. A communication system maintains a record of a recent location of the wireless device in an idle state in order to route paging messages to the wireless device if data is sent to the wireless device. One method of maintaining a record of a recent location of a wireless device is by use of a tracking area. A tracking area comprises a group of access nodes which are associated with a tracking area code. When a message such as data arrives for a wireless device in an idle mode, a first paging message is sent to the access node most recently in communication with the wireless device. When the wireless device does not respond to the first paging message within a predetermined period of time, a second paging message is sent to all of the access nodes in the tracking area.